In many cases, cleaning the home or office is a task that is hard to work into the schedule. For this reason, the option of hiring a professional cleaning service is often attractive to busy homeowners and small businesses that cannot afford to keep a permanent cleaning crew on the payroll. Before making arrangements with any cleaning service, there are a few issues you should address. Doing so will help to ensure that there is no miscommunication between the service and the client, and also help everyone to feel comfortable with the arrangement.

One of the first things you should do before contacting any professional cleaning service is to determine exactly what type of cleaning needs you have. For example, you may have no problem making the beds and running the dishwasher each day, but never seem to getting around to vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning the bathroom. There may also be the need to steam clean the carpeting every few months or mop the kitchen floor on a regular basis. By making a list of the tasks you need the service to handle, it will be much easier to identify whether you need a maid service or a professional cleaning service that is more versatile in their services.

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With your list of needs in place, your next step is to identify cleaning services that use some type of screening process for their employees. This is important, as the cleaning process will normally take place when you are not present. For this reason, you want assurance that the people who will be entering your home or office are honest, trustworthy, and committed to doing a good job. Ideally, professional cleaning service you consider will be willing to share with you their process for qualifying employees, including the process utilized to conduct background checks.

Another consideration when hiring cleaning services is to determine what type of commitment you must make. Some office and home cleaners will offer discounted rates in exchange for committing to a one or two year service agreement. If you see the need as being long term, you may want to consider this option as a way to save a little money. However, it is usually a good idea to use the service for a month or so before going for a long-term commitment. If things don’t appear to be working out, you are not committed to anything and can simply begin using another service.

Additional services from time to time are something you want to have available when choosing a professional cleaning service. Will they include a few extra cleaning tasks if you are expecting company or plan on having a party? Knowing that you can count on the service to provide more than routine cleaning if necessary means you do not have to scramble for other services to come in at the last minute. Keep in mind that as an established customer, you may qualify for a discount off the pricing for those one-time cleaning tasks.

Choosing a professional cleaning service essentially boils down to going with office or home cleaning providers who are reasonably priced, reputable, screen their employees, and are capable of offering additional services on an as-needed basis. Make sure to look at several different house cleaning services before making your choice. That will provide you with a better idea of the going rate and how different services choose to operate.

Discuss this Article

LostnfoundPost 2

@Grivusangel -- All good points. You also want to make sure the people coming into your home are insured with their company and bonded. That means, if they break or damage something in your home, their company's insurance will pay for the repair.

My mom needs a professional carpet cleaning service in her home and I've been looking around for people to do it. I got recommendations and then looked at whether they were bonded and insured. That's also a good way to know if the company is on the up and up. If they're interested enough in getting their employees bonded and they carry insurance on them, they usually care about their people doing good work.

I'd also check the company out with the Better Business Bureau. That won't tell you everything, but it's a place to start.

GrivusangelPost 1

One thing I would do is ask friends if they've hired professional cleaning services, and then ask them who they would recommend. Also, there are some companies that are nationally known, and should, ideally, have the reputation for doing good work and hiring good people.

I'd want to be around for most of the appointments. If the homeowner is present, there's a much lower likelihood of something really bad happening in the home. I'd also definitely tell my neighbors if I got professionals in so they could keep an eye on things around the house. I think that's just common sense.

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